Tormented
by Penofmysoul
Summary: Experiencing intense pain especially mental pain, a tortured witness to another's humiliation, tormented or harassed by nightmares or unreasonable fears, hagridden...by visions of an imminent heaven or hell upon earth


A/N: Enjoy!

Prologue 

She was writing. It was what she always did when she was worked up. It somehow seemed to calm her nerves. Reach past the emotional turmoil that seemed to be brewing in her everyday lately and brush the tension right out of her system. She heard Shippo loudly crying out his good fortune at the discovery of more pocky, Sango and Miroku arguing, and Inuyasha grunting softly at the whole mess, but nothing could pull her from her notebook at this moment. How could this be possible? How? How? The question seemed to be on an endless cycle of repetition, sometimes in her voice, sometimes in her brother's or grandfather's. There was still no answer to the one thing that plagued her endlessly. The battered old covering in front of Kaede's hut swished to the side and she barely saw the worn feet, cuffed in red Fire Rat cloth before he was sitting next to her silently. Not saying a word, but offering her the same support that she'd needed since the day she'd come back through the well. The others kept asking when she planned to go back. Shippo was delighted that she'd stayed two whole weeks in the Feudal Era, but was also wondering why she hadn't returned home. She still hadn't told them yet…How could she say it without making it a reality. As long as the words never left her mouth, it wouldn't be true. And so she hadn't spoken of it. Let it drift to the side of her mind as she watched the daily routine of life in an age so far removed from her own. She felt Inuyasha's eyes roam slowly over her, almost as if he were checking for injuries. But still he said nothing. She felt his worry, his unspoken concern, and wanted to find a way to reassure him, to comfort him. But there was no way of letting him no that she was okay, because she wasn't. She doubted if she ever would be again…

Inuyasha watched the scene before him with growing boredom. The monk and exterminator were at again. Arguing and fussing about stuff that held little to no importance. Shippo had been silently rummaging through the giant yellow bag that was Kagome's trademark until he found his beloved chocolate pocky, and yet none of them had bothered to think it weird tat Kagome hadn't "Sat" him in the two weeks she'd been here. Not bothered to wonder why she only talked when spoken to, and only ate the bare minimum unless he sat and watched her through the entire meal. Grunting loudly, he hopped down from his perch in the tree directly outside of Kaede's hut and wandered inside. She was sitting exactly where he'd left her three hours earlier still scratching lines on the lined thing she called a "notebook". He sat next to her and said nothing, but every once in a while he let himself peek over at her, letting his eyes flow over her form and then over to the soft graceful lines of her script, trying unsuccessfully to read what she'd written. She kept tilting the notebook away from him, preventing him from reading even one thing. He was worried about her, there he'd admitted it. Every since the day he'd come through the well to hear the horrible screaming sounds in his ears, and saw Kagome hunched on the ground, covered in that bright red substance that could only be blood, on her knees in front of the Sacred God Tree, pleading. With whom he did not know. Later the situation would make sense. After he'd picked her up. After he'd put up with her fists pounding relentlessly into his chest. The whispered why's and how's that had slipped through her lips in an endless blur. Followed almost soundlessly by a torrent of tears so quiet he'd never have noticed them save for their salty scent. He'd carried her weeping form back towards the shrine, with every step feeling his heart break at the sound of her whimpers. The boy and old man had been just outside the door to what he knew was the kitchen. Tears streaked silently down their faces as well and Inuyasha knew even through the smell that something horrible had transpired. He felt Kagome clawing relentlessly at him the closer he stepped towards the kitchen. The pitiful whimpers she emitted enough to let him know that she didn't want to go inside. So he'd dropped her to her feet, and walked inside by himself. The smell was horrendous. And the sight even worse. Smeared across the walls and almost every open surface, was blood, filling pots on the table were vital organs, and hanging from the ceiling above him was the body. Laid open and empty with a blank smile still on the face, Inuyasha knew that the person had died before they even knew what had happened. Merciful some might call it, if the scene was anything to judge by. Carved into the wall, in empty spaces between the rivers of blood: "You will pay!" Inuyasha felt as though he himself was going to be sick, and rushed from the room. The memory was vivid and almost to much for him to handle, and he gathered himself together in a hurry. She hadn't cried. Not since that hopeless day, not at the funeral, or when she was packing away the things. In fact she'd done nothing. Shown no emotion. She'd shut down. Slowly he reached out, brushed back a lock of that silky raven hair and murmured "It wasn't your fault."  
"Then whose fault is it?" The reply was toneless, no emotion at all, and Inuyasha felt himself shiver as the coldness she seemed to be emanating brushed him.

"An idiot's. And we'll find him one day…I promise." He whispered

"You mean, you promise the same way I promised her? Said she'd never get hurt, not as long as I lived. That I would never bring back what I fought. And yet, it followed me anyway. Its as much my fault as if I ripped her apart myself. I killed my mother, no one else."

A/N: Yes, I know it was slightly twisted. I promise that it will all unfold in later chapters. For know just keep reading and try to find peace in knowing everything will be okay.


End file.
